


No One Is Innocent

by startrekkingaroundasgard



Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo Round 2 [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bad Communication, Captured, Dubious Morals, Enemies, F/M, HYDRA!reader, Interrogation, Lies, opposite sides, prisoner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27722977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/startrekkingaroundasgard/pseuds/startrekkingaroundasgard
Summary: After being captured by SHIELD, the reader is interrogated for intel. When they reveal nothing, Bucky takes a different approach to retrieve information.Square - B4
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Series: Bucky Barnes Bingo Round 2 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1919305
Kudos: 19





	No One Is Innocent

The guard shoved you through the door and flicked the lock the moment it closed. You slammed your fist against the metal surface but your demands to be released were pointedly ignored from the other side. You could have punched it all day and made no progress in breaking it down; if you weren’t mistaken, the door was made of a the same titanium alloy that Stark used in his original suits and you weren’t willing to risk breaking your bones on a futile escape attempt.

Instead, you turned around and took in your surroundings. Naturally, your gaze was drawn to the man in the centre of the room. Even from behind, you recognised him instantly. The Soldier. No. Bucky, you reminded yourself; he went by Bucky now, a pathetic attempt to hold on to the life that was long gone, lost to history and replaced with a purpose he turned his back on.

He’d pulled his hair up into a loose bun, far more practical for an assassin than leaving it hanging around his face. It looked good, you had to admit, but the thought was fleeting. His back to you, he sat in the middle of what was small enough to be little more than a converted storage room. What high regard his superiors must have held him in to provide such luxury space.

On a thin yoga mat, his limbs were folded in the lotus position, a sight you never imagined you would see in your entire life. The world’s most dangerous assassin doing yoga. In other circumstances, it might be funny. However, you could hardly bring yourself to laugh when, much to your dismay, there was a second one beside him.

“This is a joke, right?”

“Sit down.”

He was unarmed. Not literally, although you supposed that was rather the point. There was no need for weapons when such a deadly tool was already grafted onto his body. Surveying the emptied cupboard, you spotted no hidden weapons, no way to force you to comply and yet you found yourself reluctantly joining him on the ground nonetheless.

A quick inspection confirmed that he was truly here and not a holographic projection of some kind. Again, it wasn’t as if he had anything to fear being near you. You were little more than middle management and only had basic training to fall back on. There was no way you could take down a trained killer. However, you still found yourself searching for the classic signs of projection: visible degradation around the hair ends, a miniscule shift in skin tone and, of course, the actual hardware required to create an image.

Convinced that he was really there, you mirrored his position and stared directly ahead to the crumbling concrete wall. “Why am I here?”

Unsurprisingly, Bucky didn’t answer. His chest rose with a slow, controlled breath. Despite his visible comfort, the walls he held around you were still plainly present but there was a calmness to him. If you didn’t know better you might have mistaken it for trust. In reality, it was little more than a projection of confidence. You wondered what it would take to get him to snap and turn that internalised hatred on you.

“I appreciate the theatrics of dragging me in here but if you’re just going to sit there then I’d prefer to leave you to it.”

His metal fingers were cold against your skin, the grip firm but purposefully not tight enough to bruise. “Sit down.”

You tugged your wrist free but sat back down on the thin mat. You made a show of rubbing the skin even though it didn’t really hurt at all and crossed your arms over your chest. “I am not an animal to be trained. Tell me what you want, already.”

Bucky’s lips twitched with an invisible smile that vanished almost immediately, and you wondered whether it had been anything more than a trick of the flickering lights. Either way, you had no intention to become his friend or ally so shoved the thought aside.

“We want your intel on the HYDRA base: Nemesis.”

That again? He was the fourth agent sent to retrieve information about that forsaken place this week. It was beginning to get tiresome, especially as all they did was talk. Where HYDRA would have done everything in their power to sway a prisoner, SHIELD’s leadership simply didn’t have the balls. They were a ‘humane’ institution, bowed down to the law like the good little dogs they were. You’d almost been excited to put to test years of training to fight their conditioning, to spit blood in the face of your captors and laugh at their pitiful interrogations, but the worst you’d faced was a depressing meal and an empty cell.

“How many times do I have to tell you people? It was decommissioned years ago.”

“That is not what the latest aerial shots suggest.”

“Clearly you know more about what is going on there than I do. Even if it was still in use, I am… was essentially a personnel manager. Defence strategies were above my paygrade. So, if it’s all the same to you, I’ll head back to my cell now.”

Finally, the first crack in his peaceful façade showed. Almost imperceptible save for the fact you were specifically watching for a response. A moment of tension in his jaw, the slight twitch of his metallic fingers. You were getting to him.

“Innocent lives are on the line. Does that mean nothing to you?”

You shrugged, not truly indifferent but so done with this charade that you allowed the ideals you’d had been taught, that over the years you’d come to realise yourself were mostly correct, to come to the surface. “No one is innocent.”

Surprisingly, Bucky didn’t argue that point. However, despite the evidence, he still came down hard on the other side of the line that separated you. “That doesn’t mean they deserve to die.”

For the first time, Bucky turned to face you head on. You’d spent enough time around liars and manipulators to recognise the signs which were currently lacking from his expression. He genuinely believed the words he spouted and it was disgustingly admirable. What a change to the Soldier you remembered.

You’d faced down enough giants not to crumble beneath his intense gaze. Still, even as you tilted your chin up defiantly you drew into yourself.

Bucky shook his head lightly, visibly disappointed in your lack of humility. He sighed deeply, changing tactics. “You told me before that you wanted to leave HYDRA. The best way you can do that is to turn your back on their ideals and stand up for everything they hate.”

There was a logic there, you had to admit. And it was smart to play on your self preservation instincts. But freedom came with a price and it was one that you could not afford to pay. “If I provide your superiors with the information they want, I’ll be dead within the week.”

“We will protect you.”

“You used to be a better liar, Soldat.”

Bucky winced at the title but he didn’t take the bait, didn’t lash out the way you had hoped he would. It would have been the perfect excuse to be relocated to one of their other prisons, or at worst another wing of this miserable facility, and you’d have had the chance to put into motion one of your many escape plans.

It was a still a possibility, though. The Soldier was in there somewhere, you were certain of it. All you had to do was bring him to the surface and then… You frowned. Then what? Go back to the very people you had dreamed of escaping? Disappear and spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder as they hunted you down to bring you back into the fold?

But what did that leave? Joining them? The very people you had been taught to hate, an organisation that hadn’t realised they were overrun by the enemy until it was too late, who were barely keeping it together in the aftermath. So called protectors that did more damage than they prevented, that boasted freedom of all people only to hold back information and technology for their own benefit.

“You won’t have to work for us.”

It was uncomfortable, you realised, being seen this way. Disarming in a way you had never quite experienced before. Bucky didn’t need to ask what you were thinking because it was a conversation he had had with himself a hundred times or more. He understood you better than almost anyone else in this ridiculous organisation ever could.

“Give us everything you know about the security of Nemesis Base and SHIELD will protect you. They will give you a new name, somewhere new to live. Records can be wiped. You will never have existed.”

You shook your head. That wasn’t freedom, not when you owed them your life. Not when they could conveniently dangle the threat of exposure over your head every time they needed more information. You’d be just as trapped as you were now.

Pushing up onto your feet, you said stiffly, “I’d like to go back to my cell now.”

“You’re making a mistake.”

“No, I don’t think I am.”

You walked away, knocked calmly on the door. However, there was no response from the other side. Rolling your eyes, you spun back around to Bucky, who was still on the floor, eyes now shut as he feigned meditation. It was almost clever, quietly irritating you to the point of breaking.

You groaned. “The RADAR will pick your jets up from fifty miles away. If you want to send operatives onto the base, you’ll need to send them in from under water. The last time I was there, the sensors on the west cliff face were faulty. The tides are too rough to fix them. That’s their best bet of getting in.”

Bucky finally stood and joined you at the door. He pressed his hand against an invisible panel in the wall, which you felt stupid for missing, and nodded to the armed guard waiting in the corridor. “You’re doing the right thing.”

“I just wanted to be let out of this bloody cupboard. That’s all.” With that, you started down the hallway back towards your cell, wondering what would happen when the operatives arrived to find that the sensors were perfectly functioning.


End file.
